Olympic and Paralympic medals for Paris 2024 revealed
The countdown to the Paris 2024 Olympic Tennis Event and Paralympic Wheelchair Tennis Event can now truly begin after the medals were unveiled on Thursday.
Whether gold, silver or bronze, athletes who are fortunate enough to take home a medal from the upcoming Games will also take home a piece of history – with each containing a very special piece of metal that was once part of the Eiffel Tower.
Eighteen grams of the original iron of the Eiffel Tower has been set into the centre of each medal like a jewel – fitting, given the iconic landmark has long been the jewel in the crown of the city of Paris.
“There was a huge amount done to try to bring together these precious metals - gold, silver and bronze - with the most precious metal in the Eiffel Tower, the jewel in the French crown,” said Tony Estanguet, President of the Paris 2024 Organising Committee.
“What’s impactful for this year will be having a part of the original Eiffel Tower metal, the iron, in these various medals, and so this is what we wanted to do, to infuse all these 2024 athletes with that metal.”
A total of 5,084 medals have been produced for Paris 2024, with each medal 85mm in diameter and 9.2mm thick. The gold medal weighs in at 529grams, while the silver is 525grams and bronze 455grams.
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The Olympic Tennis event will take place on the clay of Roland Garros in 170 days - on 27 July. The entry list for the singles and doubles events will be published here in the first week of July.